JOHN F. FLOYD: Trump brings business theory to White House

Thursday

Aug 2, 2018 at 9:32 AMAug 2, 2018 at 9:32 AM

I may have President Donald Trump figured out, to a degree, and that took some doing.

Trump, first and foremost, is a businessman who has been thrown into a non-business environment with many problems, some seemingly insurmountable. He has attacked difficult political situations with a problem-solving business mentality. That mentality is trust no one who is a part of the present political problem, either Democrat or Republican.

While not on the same scale by any measurement, I can easily equate Trump’s problems to situations I faced with troubled Goodyear plants. My beloved Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company — I say beloved because it has always been a positive part of my life — sent me to Windsor, Vermont, a non-performing asset, as plant manager in 1973. I was at my desk in Topeka, Kansas, when Executive Vice President Collie Gilchrist called and told me to pack my bags.

After recovering from the shock, I quickly got the map out and looked up Windsor, Vermont. The map said the population of Windsor was 30,000, which wasn’t too bad. The call to Connie was interesting because this move was taking her away from her professorship and her career at Washburn University. I have always said that Connie was better at her job than I ever was at mine, so it was a traumatic move for her.

Later in the day, I looked at the U.S. map again and discovered I had made a huge mistake with the population of Windsor. Instead of being a city of 30,000 people, I had mistakenly added one zero too many. Windsor’s population was only 3,000. The next call to Connie got even more interesting.

The Windsor plant was an industrial products plant and the only relationship it had to tire manufacturing was both used rubber as a primary ingredient. Collie told me of the many problems at Windsor, but offered no template for correction. He just told me to identify and fix the problems. This is where the similarities of my situation to Trump’s becomes congruent.

Like Trump, you question everything having a relation to the problem such as systems, people, processes, union relations, vendors and material. In other words, you start with a blank piece of paper and question all aspects of the manufacturing equation.

Being a businessman, Trump is using business theory by questioning everything associated with the U.S. government. He questioned the monetary participation of the members of NATO, he withdrew from the Paris climate agreement, trashed the agreement with Iran, declined participation in the 11-nation Pacific Trade agreement, challenged the European Union on fair trade, lobbied for U.S. natural gas sales to Europe in competition with Russia and initiated tariffs on goods coming from countries who had sweetheart trade deals, such as China. These were only a few of his promised actions.

As a result, NATO has increased defense spending, the EU has agreed to fair trade, U.S. sales of natural gas to Europe are increasing and the tariffs will eventually bring China to the negotiating table.

The greatest aspect of Trump’s short presidency is the fact he has made no apology for the wealth of the United States. Some politicians think the U.S. wealth is an embarrassment and that it should be shared with other countries. Our country works hard for its wealth and owes no apology or any part of our wealth to socialized countries of the world.

This is what drives the Democrats, elitists, socialists and Hollywood trash crazy. In spite of his brusqueness, exaggerations, wealth, theatrics and critics’ accusations, Trump has a significant national following that is not judgmental. All Americans really care about are results, and Trump is delivering to them based on a business model.

As for me, I look through all the noise generated by the media and look at results. The present results of the Trump administration’s actions look promising.

John F. Floyd is a Gadsden native who graduated from Gadsden High School in 1954. He formerly was director of United Kingdom manufacturing, Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., vice president of manufacturing and international operations, General Tire & Rubber Co., and director of manufacturing, Chrysler Corp. He can be reached at johnfloyd538@gmail.com. The opinions reflected are his own.

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